NEW YORK–Look for Martha Stewart to launch her brand at another major mass chain when her contract with Kmart ends in January 2010, Susan Lyne, president and chief executive officer of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, said during Bank of America’s 2008 Consumer Conference here.
“We do not think Kmart is our likely partner at mass going forward,” she said. “The mass channel will be open to us again and [one] can assume that we’ll have a major partner and will continue in that space,” she said. As of 2010, “We can be in business with any other mass retailer, and we are free to be having those conversations right now.”
MSLO owns all of its designs and trademarks, she said, “which revert to us.
“The Kmart agreement ends in 2010. That’s the bridge we’re crossing,” she said.
Stewart’s empire will be on the hunt for a “first-in-class retailer” in the mass channel that will invest in the business, she said.
Lyne was also bullish on MSLO’s recently announced acquisition of chef Emeril Lagasse’s franchise, including home products, for $50 million last month.
Lagasse’s licensed kitchen products include cookware by All-Clad, cutlery by Wusthof and small electrics from T-Fal, she noted, and “we think we can grow that significantly,” she said.
